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» Pardon their dust: The upgrade to MT 4 has broken much of my site, and my host, Pair is working (slowly) to try to figure out how to fix all the problems. In the meantime, they upgraded my server, and that has broken the commands that call my stylesheets, so the entire site is now coming to you in glorious, unstyled HTML. At least I'm able to update again....
Update: Hoorah! Styling back in place, thanks to the very helpful folks at Pair Support. Now, on to the rest of the problems.... [ 09/11/07 ]
» What with travelling and all, I missed it—but it occured to me today that on Friday, Rebecca's Pocket was 8 years old. Thanks for reading. / (7) Comments / [ 04/30/07 ]
» The Japanese translator of my book, Yomoyomo, has translated my Bruce Schneier interview into Japanese. By the way, Bruce's (excellent) book Beyond Fear is due to be released in Japan on Thursday. [ 02/12/07 ]
» I'm excited to share with you the latest in my Bloggers on Blogging series, an interview with Salon's Scott Rosenberg, one of the first journalists to really "get" blogging. In it, we talk about about his new book, the Web as a collective recordkeeper, and the effective uses of online media.
Anyone who argues that, you know, bloggers will on their own transform American politics and usher in the participatory millennium simply because they are blogging is not being serious. Blogs are simply a format in the continuing evolution of the Internet. They make it really easy for individuals to publish. This is a wonderful and valuable thing. Then it's up to us to do something with it. If your goal is to 'speak truth to power,' it behooves you to figure out where the powerful people are and how to get their attention.
[ 10/31/06 ]
» It's going to be light posting for a little while more—I'm spending most of my time off the Web this month. But look for a new Bloggers on Blogging interview later this week. / (1) Comments / [ 10/24/06 ]
» It is vacation time. I have scheduled some links for you while I'm gone, but comments will be off until my return, after Labor Day. Nor will there be email. Enjoy the last days of summer! [ 09/05/06 ]
» I'm very pleased to point you to the latest in my Bloggers on Blogging series, an interview with Web designer Tiffany B. Brown, whose blogs include tiffanybbrown.com, (the now defunct) CulturedWino.com, and blackfeminism.org (selected by Lisa Stone as one of 14 New Voices worth reading). We discuss identity-blogging, the power of comments, and the difficulty of being yet another tech blogger. [ 08/28/06 ]
» I'm pleased to point you to my most recent interview in the Bloggers on Blogging series: Jason Kottke. We discuss everything from blogging fulltime, to the perils of being married to another blogger, to handling flames.
After more than 10 years of publishing stuff online, I'm more or less fireproof. Which is not to say that when flamed I simply insulate myself with the belief that I'm right and the flamer is wrong (which is a maddenly common approach among bloggers); the key is not to take it personally. Maintaining calm in the face of criticism can be difficult, especially when the best flames contain real truths, and it's helpful to remember that when you read something.
/ (1) Comments / [ 08/08/06 ]
» Heads up to those who are following along at home. I rearranged a few things yesterday, and changed the location of my collection of Summer 2006 Reading Lists. [ 07/12/06 ]
» I'm leaving for our speaking tour. Internet access will be sporadic at best, but I'll try to schedule posts when I can get online. Comments are off during my trip since I have no idea how often I'll even be able to get online. [ 06/12/06 ]
» If you've followed the Pocket for a few years, you probably remember the day I introduced you to one of the original "weblogs of place", Fragments from Floyd. Well, Fred First, proprietor of Fragments, has just published his first book, and he graciously agreed to sit for my latest Bloggers on Blogging interview. Fred is a terrific interview subject—thoughtful and eloquent and funny—and we discuss everything from the rewards of blogging to the insecurity involved in becoming a writer. I know you'll enjoy it.
I would never have thought of myself at all as a writer before the blog. I anguished terribly over calling myself a writer in those early blogging months, though I knew that was where I wanted to go. And I found some peace by telling myself this: "If a man carries a gun into the woods looking for game, he is a hunter, even if he comes back with nothing in his pouch. In the same way, you are a writer."
[ 05/17/06 ]
» This is an actual PR spam:
Hello Rebecca,
With award-show season in the midst of Winter and the Academy Awards having just finished, I'm sure your Rebecca's Pocket readers wonder, "How do celebrities keep their great tans?" It must cross everyone's mind at one time or another, and the answer? Stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Matthew Mcconaughey, and Beyonce all maintain their summer sun-kissed looks through visits to the fabulous [name redacted] Salons.
Were you, dear reader, wondering that?
We may not have our own personal stylist and professional make-up artists like the stars, but we can give ourselves beautiful, healthy tans by simply stopping by a local [name redacted] Salon.
Think that tanning salons might be harmful? Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from a tanning bed, such as those at [name redacted] salons, result in the production of vitamin D in our skin. When vitamin D levels are stable, calcium and metabolism is preserved, which in turn reduces the risk of faulty bone development that can lead to osteoporosis.
Busy with work or your family? With over 60 locations nationwide, [name redacted] salons are open every day of the week, and with more than twenty beds at each location, you never need to schedule an appointment. Also, [name redacted] has childcare services inside the salon, so just bring the kids along with you!
Visit [URL redacted] to learn more about the quality of their salons and services.
[Name redacted], CEO of [name redacted] would have time next Tuesday or Wednesday to have a casual 10-minute conversation regarding his company as well as the quality of his products and services.
Which day will work best for you?
I look forward to hearing for you.
Best,
[PR Flack]
Media Contact
[URL redacted]
[PR flack email]
I'm guessing this email resulted from a Technorati search for Academy Awards, with (obviously) no further research done at all. I wonder how much poor Redacted is paying for this email campaign?
I wish there were a clearinghouse blog where we could just forward this kind of email. That way, organizations who were considering laying down cold, hard cash on a blog PR campaign could sample the wares, as it were.... / (1) Comments / [ 03/12/06 ]
» I'm starting an experiment today: I've opened up comments on my book log and film log. (The most recent entries are listed in the sidebar on this page.) I know from my email that Pocket readers are far above average, so I encourage those among you who are film and book lovers to get to know one another. [ 01/30/06 ]
» Pages and pages of favicons (that little image that you see next to the URL at the top of your browser). You can find me on this page. [ 01/25/06 ]
» I'm really delighted to present the newest installment of Bloggers on Blogging: David Weinberger, blogger, author, speaker, and a Berkman Center for Internet and Society Fellow. "For me, a community is a group of people who care about one another more than they have to. I do feel part of an ever-changing community of bloggers and readers.... There are people I've come to know over the years either through their blog or through their comments on my blog. Some of them mean a lot to me. And this is not a binary club that you're either in or out of. It's far smudgier than that, as it should be. There are blogs I read that I feel emotionally attached to written by bloggers I don't know personally but about whom I've come to care." [ 01/18/06 ]
» A more compact design for the New Year and a new (and rather uncomfortable) system for updating. The tipping point? My hosting service started offering the service pre-installed. After 5 1/2 years I feel like I'm starting from scratch. We'll see whether this increases or decreases my workload — so far it has increased it significantly. We'll see whether it gives me more control or less — so far, I feel constrained by several arbitrary limitations of the tool.
I'm most interested in seeing what this does to my posting style. At the moment I'm composing in a text file as I always have, and then transferring entries one by one into the little form box. Ridiculous, no? But my process has always been to write, read, edit, and then arrange my entries against one another before posting them to the site. I'm not sure I want to give that up — and it would be impossible to do using existing tools. Where is the Ajax-powered WYSIWYG blogging editor that would enable me to really edit this page? Oh, wait. [ 01/11/06 ]
